A derivational syntax for information structure / Luis López.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

López, Luis.

Series:

Oxford studies in theoretical linguistics ; no. 23.

Oxford linguistics

Oxford studies in theoretical linguistics ; no. 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Minimalist theory (Linguistics).

Grammar, Comparative and general--Topic and comment.

Physical Description:

xii, 293 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2009.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

1.1 The theoretical problem: phases and information structure 1

1.2 Brief description of the database 3

1.2.1 Clitic left dislocation and hanging topics 3

1.2.2 Clitic right dislocation 7

1.2.3 Focus fronting 8

1.2.4 P-movement, scrambling, and object shift 8

1.2.5 Accusative A 10

1.2.6 Clitic doubling 11

1.3 Assumptions 11

1.4 Sketch of the analyses and theoretical proposals 16

1.5 Conventions for glosses and translations 20

2 Information structure 22

2.1 Introduction 22

2.2 Deconstructing Topic, Focus, and Contrastive Focus 26

2.2.1 Topic 26

2.2.1.1 Aboutness topic 27

2.2.1.2 Old information topics 32

2.2.2 Focus 34

2.2.3 [+a] and [+c] 37

2.3 Dislocations 38

2.3.1 Introduction 38

2.3.2 Locality 39

2.3.3 Contrast 41

2.3.4 Discourse structure 47

2.3.5 Links and tails 54

2.3.6 Summary 54

2.4 Focus, high and low 55

2.4.1 Introduction 55

2.4.2 Are there low contrastive foci? 56

2.4.3 Are there mid-level contrasts? 57

2.4.4 Are there high non-contrastive foci? 59

2.4.5 Exhaustive focus 64

2.5 Consequences 66

2.5.1 Introduction 66

2.5.2 Stressed pronouns 66

2.5.3 Answers to D-linked questions 70

2.5.4 Focus and Topic as syntactic categories 72

2.5.5 HTLD 75

2.6 From Stress to focus? 76

2.6.1 Red convertibles 76

2.6.2 Focus, the Nuclear Stress Rule (NSR), and Stress Shift 80

2.7 Conclusion 83

3 The syntax of dislocations and focus fronting 85

3.1 Introduction 85

3.2 CLRD 87

3.2.1 The position of CLRD 87

3.2.2 The structure of the clitic 93

3.2.3 Assignment of [+a] 97

3.2.4 Order 101

3.2.5 Interim conclusions 104

3.3 Movement to Spec, Fin 104

3.3.1 Split CP 104

3.3.2 Spec, Fin as landing site 107

3.3.3 Multiple specifiers and the LCA 110

3.3.4 Why Spec, Fin? 112

3.4 CLLD 113

3.4.1 Assignment of [+c] 113

3.4.2 Assignment of [+a] 114

3.5 FF and wh-movement 117

3.6 Co-occurrence restrictions without X'-theory 121

3.7 Dislocated subjects 129

3.7.1 Introduction 129

3.7.2 The SVO order 130

3.7.3 Right dislocated subjects 135

3.8 Left periphery: lush or sparse? The case of Finnish 136

3.8.1 The difference with Catalan 137

3.8.2 Alternatives within a TopP/FocP framework 140

3.8.3 One final look at Finnish objects and the feature [+a] 142

3.9 Conclusions 145

4 The derivation of information structure 146

4.1 Introduction 146

4.2 Derivational assignment of [$$a] and [$$c] 147

4.2.1 Sub-extraction and feature conservation 147

4.2.2 Some derivations in detail 153

4.2.3 Improper movement 163

4.3 Criterial Freezing 165

4.4 Derivations and representations 167

4.5 Conclusions 170

5 Moving objects 171

5.1 Introduction: [+a] and [+spec] 171

5.2 P-movement 173

5.2.1 P-movement: empirical problems 173

5.2.2 P-movement in Spanish 175

5.2.3 CLRD and p-movement 177

5.2.4 Is p-movement prosodic movement? 179

5.2.5 P-movement in Catalan and Italian 183

5.3 Accusative A 186

5.4 Clitic Doubling in Rioplatense 193

5.5 The syntax of specificity 197

5.6 Scrambling and object shift 203

5.7 Conclusions 210

6 Dislocation debates 212

6.1 Introduction 212

6.2 Movement or base-generation of dislocates 213

6.2.1 CLLD and CLRD move, HTLD does not 215

6.2.2 CLLD does not move: Part I 224

6.2.3 CLLD does not move, Part II: epithets 229

6.2.4 LF movement of the clitic (as an operator) 231

6.2.5 Everything moves 232

6.2.5.1 Resumption 233

6.2.5.2 Islands and the Principle of Unambiguous Chains 235

6.3 What triggers movement? 239

6.3.1 Attract/Pied-pipe or Move? 241

6.3.2 Formal or interpretive features? 243

6.3.3 Intervention 245

6.4 Right dislocation 247

6.4.1 CLRD is in the middle field 248

6.4.1.1 Evidence in Chapter 3 248

6.4.1.2 Reconstruction and argument-adjunct asymmetries 250

6.4.1.3 NPI licensing 254

6.4.1.4 ECP effects in French 255

6.4.1.5 Aux-to-COMP in Italian 256

6.4.1.6 Conclusions 257

6.4.2 Right dislocation is very low 258

6.4.3 Right dislocation is very high 265

6.5 Remarks on the syntax of clitics 267

6.6 Conclusions 274.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [277]-288) and index.

ISBN:

9780199557417

0199557411

9780199557400

0199557403

OCLC:

319601728